Bharti Airtel makes R Sundar Rajan its legal head

MUMBAI: The country’s top mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has roped in R Sundar Rajan, who was chief of legal at infrastructure firm GMR, to head its legal department, ending a nine-month search. A Bharti spokesman confirmed the appointment of Sundar Rajan as group general counsel at Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of Airtel and its sister concerns, substituting Mukesh Bhavnani, who quit the position in April.

Rajan, who joined Bharti in the first week of this month, is in charge of secretarial, compliance and legal matters including mergers and acquisitions and litigation. He has come in at a time when the group is once again looking to consolidate.

Bharti has been looking for a legal head for about nine months and had interviewed several lawyers. The post required broad experience including hands on involvement with litigation and Rajan scored on this, having started his career practicing law at the Madras High Court, said people familiar with the selection process.